Woman testifies for third day in Yale rape trial

By Randall Beach
| on February 28, 2018

NEW HAVEN — The attorney for Saifullah Khan Wednesday resumed his aggressive cross-examination of Khan’s accuser in his sexual assault trial, asking her if she had “led him on” and sent him “flirtatious” text messages.

During the woman’s third day on the witness stand, attorney Norm Pattis also asked her detailed questions about that late-night sexual encounter in her Yale dormitory bedroom, and he concluded by suggesting she was “ashamed of what you had done.”

She replied, “I was ashamed I was sexually assaulted.”

The complainant, now 24, appeared to be in a more fragile state than during her first two days of testimony. She repeatedly reached for tissues from a box in front of her, often drank cups of water, frequently wept and kept her face to the side rather than facing Pattis.

After about a half hour of questioning, Pattis asked her: “Do you have any idea how vomit got on the inside of your skirt?” She replied, “I vomited on my lap.” Then she asked Superior Court Judge Brian T. Fischer if she could take a break and Fischer gave her about 10 minutes to compose herself.

She previously testified she became “extremely inebriated” during that night of Halloween partying. She vomited twice during a Yale Symphony Orchestra concert at Woolsey Hall and a third time in her bedroom.

Khan, 25, who was her classmate at the time of the encounter in November 2015, continued to watch her intently as she testified. But he showed little or no emotion.

He is charged with first-degree sexual assault as well as sexual assault in the second, third and fourth degrees. Yale officials suspended him shortly after she made her accusations against him. This was during his senior year. He has not returned to the school.

The complainant repeated her earlier account that after consuming five drinks at an off-campus Halloween party that Saturday night, she walked with her friends to Woolsey Hall but was too intoxicated to remember the walk. She said she had “no motor functions” and could not access her concert ticket on her cellphone but Khan appeared at her side to do this for her. She said she never saw her phone again until the following morning, after the alleged assault.

She said she had limited memories of being at the concert hall, other than throwing up twice and that Khan stayed beside her after she got separated from her friends. When a Woolsey Hall guard told her she couldn’t return to the concert because of her vomiting, the woman said, “I recall he (Khan) took me by the hand” and walked her back to her room.

“I remember leaning on him for support because I couldn’t walk,” she testified.

The woman said Khan helped her get into her room because she was too intoxicated to use her room key.

She told Pattis that when she entered her bedroom she sat on the couch with him, then threw up on him and on herself. The next thing she remembered was collapsing onto her bed.

“You told (Yale) police your memories were very ‘fragmented’ after you collapsed on your bed?” Pattis asked. “You said you vividly recall seeing Mr. Khan standing naked next to your bed?” She said this was true.

The woman testified she didn’t remember taking her clothes off, nor Khan removing her attire: a cat outfit she had selected for Halloween.

“But you do recall struggling and trying to push him off?” Pattis asked “And trying to tell him ‘Stop’?” She replied she did remember that. But Pattis noted she told police she was “incoherently mumbling.”

When the woman testified, “He was restraining me by my arms and legs,” Pattis asked exactly how he had done this. He noted she had not told campus police in her 61-page statement that Khan pinned her arms.

“I described him physically on top of me,” she replied.

“But at some point he released his grip and you were able to lean over and see condoms on the side of your bed?” Pattis asked. She said that was what she remembered.

When the woman testified it was clear Khan had penetrated her, Pattis noted she didn’t tell police she had been “penetrated.” Pattis read excerpts from her police statement: “I felt like we had sex. ... Yeah, I thought it was vaginal sex.”

Citing the language the woman used earlier in her testimony, Pattis asked her: “Why didn’t you say to police, ‘I felt him inside of me’? You told the jury, ‘He penetrated me.’ You never told the police that, did you?”

She replied, “I was barely holding it together.”

Noting Yale New Haven Hospital staffers took photos of bruises on the woman’s thigh and knee, which she attributed to being assaulted by Khan, Pattis asked: “You’re not aware of any injuries to your wrists, arms or torso, are you?” She said she was not.

Then Pattis noted, “You told this jury you ‘suspected’ you had been raped and ‘having him there (early the next morning) confirmed it.’”

She replied, “I know I was raped.”

Pattis also questioned her about texts she exchanged with Khan that next morning after he had left. Pattis cited one of her responses to him: “LOL,” which she confirmed stands for “laugh out loud.”

In addition, Pattis noted that when she went to the Yale Health center that same morning, “you told them you had had consensual intercourse with a regular partner.”

She replied, “I was afraid to tell the doctor” the details of being sexually assaulted.

Pattis also brought up a Yale police officer’s note about Khan being a native of Afghanistan: “From Afghan. (Muslim). Violence accepted.” Pattis asked: “Did you tell police you thought Mr. Khan was violent because he’s a Muslim from Afghanistan?”

She replied, “I don’t remember saying that in those words.” She added she has been “trying to understand why” he had committed the alleged assault.

“You led Mr. Khan on, didn’t you?” Pattis asked. “No,” she replied.

Pattis: “You flirted with him with texts and smiley faces?” She answered, “I talked to him the same way I talked to my friends.”

When Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Pepper followed up, he asked whether she had ever had a romantic interest in Khan. She said, “No, I was just trying to be friendly.”

When Pepper asked whether she had “any reason to come here and not tell the truth,” she again cried and replied, “No. There’s nothing to gain from that. This is really difficult.”